Navajo

Basic Morphology

Noun Morphology. Navajo nouns range from the simplest
ncmainalfiHmSfSten nouns, such asdil, 'blood,' or gah 'rab-
bit,* to complex nominalizations such as bee HI 'ada'agizi tsin

bighqqh de' dhigii ' screwdriver, * lit. 'that which is used to
twist things away out of sight that is attached to wood.' Be-
tween these two extremes are various combinations that are
today fully lexicalized for speakers as a single notun including
historically compound forms such as kek'eh M- 'foot* plus
k'eh 'place': 'footprint', as well as nominalized verbs such as
nimasii: nimaz, 'it is round' plus -» (nominalizing enclitic).
Whatever the historical path of grammaticization, Navajo nouns
are not marked for much grammatical information except pos-
session, which may be for first, second, third, or fourth per-,
son, or indefinitely possessed (by "someone"). Some nouns,
such as body parts, are inalienably possessed. Some may also
be pluralized with the distributive (dist) plural prefix along
with a possessive prefix, such that they are possessed by sev-
eral: danihima 'our mother', although otherwise plurality is
always marked on the verb. There are also a few kinship terms
that may be pluralized through the addition of the suffix -ke:
ashiike 'boys', afeedki, 'girls', etc.

Verbs may be nominalized through the addition of various
nominalizing/relativizing enclitics, including (1) 4i 'one which
is (has the inherent quality of being)': mq'ii 'the roainer, e.g.,
coyote'; (2) -i 'one which is'; and (3) the more particulariz-
ing -igii 'the one in particular which is', thus: sidd 's/he sits',
siddhi 'sitter', siddhigii 'the one who is sitting'* There is also
another enclitic -yqe, meaning 'that (previously mentioned)
one,' or 'the one which is gone': dxn€vy$e 'those people'.

Nouns may also be modified through the addition of a small
set of directional enclitics, such as -g66 'towards ', -d44 'from' ,
etc.

There are also interrogative suffixes: -sh and -shqq 'how
about X', as well as a modal enclitic of uncertainty shu. 'maybe
X', and a negative circumfix doo- ...-da 'not X'. The subordi-

nating enclitic -go, which typically goes on verbs, may also
attach to nouns, yielding the meaning 'being X', as in
dinik* ehgo 'being Navajo, in the Navajo way'.

Verbal Morphology. The Navajo verb typically consists of
a stem preceded by two or more (up to nine) prefixes in a se-
quential order tiiat produce a lexical unit. Verb prefixes may
be divided into two broad classes: paradigmatic and deriva-
tional-thematic (Young and Morgan 1987). Paradigmatic pre-
fixes identify verbal arguments, mode, aspect, degree of tran-
sitivity i and number. Derivational-thematic prefixes include a
wide range of elements that contribute to lexical meaning, in-
cluding direction, manner, location, and aspect. Many thematic
prefixes have lost their historical meaning and have simply
become part of a verb theme, and may be separated from the
stem by other more productive prefixes, as in yd~ ...ItV 'to
speak': ydshtV 'I speak* , ydntttV 'you speak', ydtti' 's/he
speaks' (see Tables 3 and 4 on the next page).

Navajo verbs are divided into two classes: "active" and "neu-
ter". Active verbs may be conjugated in three to six different
"mckfes" of paradigms, including the imperfective, perfective,
futuWprogressive, usitative/iterative, and optative. Neuter verbs
may only be conjugated in one paradigm, either imperfective or
perfective. Imperfective neuters denote attributes or qualities of
their subject, as in the following examples: tibd 'it is gray ', nidaaz
'it is heavy', 'alhosh 'one is asleep'. Perfective neuters denote a
completed action, as in the subject being in position, or in a state
of rest resulting from some action. Both active and neuter para-
digms (especially in the perfective) may be further subdivided
into as many as four different conjugations depending on which
prefix, if any, they take in position 7 (0, y/-, «/- or si-).

Transitivity is marked on the verb through a set of prefixes
(four of them: 0, /, /, d) called "classifiers" (Young and Mor-
gan 1987), or "transitivity indicators" (Kibrik 1993, 1996). The
literature does employ the term "passive" for constructions
involving detransitivizing classifiers (/, d) that encode a sup-
pressed agent. Similarly, much of the literature discusses the
use of the classifier that signals increased transitivity as a
causativizing device. For phonological reasons, and due to the
fact that a "peg" prefix (prefix that fills out the CVC structure
at the beginning of verb stems when necessary) often appears
in either subject or object positions, active and "passive" con-
structions often appear identical. Both active and neuter verb
classes may be "passivized" in this way:

508 Navajo

Table 3: Basic Prefix Position Template

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Stem

Adverb

Repet.

Distrib.
PL

Dir.
obj.

^pers.,
deictic subj.,
indef. subj.

Adverb

Mode

Subject

Classifier

Decreased transitivity or "simple passive" examples:

1 )M6s( yoolteei 'S/he is carrying the/a cat'

cat obj.themat.classif.cany.animate.obj

Most yilteel 'The/a cat is being carried'

peg.classif.carry.animate.obj

2)Gish yis(t)tq 'S/he keeps the/a cane'

cane obj.classif.hold.cylindrical.obj

Gish yis(l)tq 'The/a cane is kept'

peg.classif.hold.cylindrical.obj

In the second example the classifiers (1, 1) disappear at the
surface level.

Increased transitivity:

3)yi(0)b£ezh
peg.classif.boils

'it's boiling'
's/he's boiling it'

yilbeezh

obj.classif.boils

Negation is achieved through the use of the negative frame
doo... da around the verb (or noun) phrase, as in the following
examples:

'it's not sweet'

I don't like it'

'this hat isn't mine'

doo tikan da
not sweet not

dooshily&'&ttihda
not to.me pleasant not

dii ch'ah doo shi da
this hat not me not

Basic Syntax

When both subject and object are represented by nouns in ad-
dition to the subject and object prefixes marked on the verb,
the order is generally SOV. When the subject is other than
third person it is generally represented by the verb-incorpo-
rated pronoun alone. It has been suggested that Navajo has an
animacy hierarchy in which humans must precede animals
(Young and Morgan 1987), followed by several finer levels of
discrimination (Creamer 1974), in sentence order, resulting in
inverted subject/object order. Inversion is mandatory when the
subject is inanimate and the object is animate. When inversion
occurs, it is marked by the replacement of the unmarked yi- 3rd
person object prefix with the marked bi- 3rd person object pre-
fix, as in the following (examples from Young and Morgan 1987):

ashkii dzaneez bishhash
boy mule it-bit-it

'The mule bit the boy.

Table 4: Sample Verb Paradigm of the Verb 'to make'

Tense + stem form

Imperfective

-Uihl-niih
X makes it

Perfective

-laal-yaa
X made it

Future

-niai-im

X will make it

Usitative

-'firf

X makes it

Optative

-le'l-ne'

X would make it

I

4shieeh

£shfaa

*deeshtffi

ish*i

ooshte

You

£nfl&h

finilaa

ddfflffi

anfl'i

oole

He/she

ffl&h

fyiilaa

fidoolffl

ffl'l

ayole

One

£jil&h

4jiilaa

Azhdoolffl

ajfl'i

ajole

We

ffln&h

filyaa

ddiilnffl

fil'f

oolne

You (pi)

6M66h

6ohtaa

adoohiffl

6T'i

oohte

They

ffl#h

iyiilaa

fidoolffl

ffl'i

ay61e

Ones

*jfl&h

4jiilaa

izhdoolffl

mi

ajole

Distributives (Multiple/distributed agents or patients)

We

£deiiln&h

£deiilyaa

idadiilnffl

ideiil't

ddaoolne

You

&daoht&h

Adaohlaa

ddadoohlffl

U**1

£daoohle

They

ddajil&h

idayiilaa

ddeidoolffl

idel'l

idayole

Ones

*dajil&h

idajiilaa

idazhdoolffl

£dajft'f

4daj61e

Adverbs typically precede the verbs they modify :

ts(i igo yishwol Tm running fast. '

fast-sub I-run

Adjectives and postpositions follow the nouns they modify:

chidiiichif nahdlnii'
car red-one I-bought-it
*I bought the red car.'

Ch'ahshaayinfq
hat me-to he-gave-it
'He gave the hat to me.'

Field, Margaret. 2001. Navajo. In Garry, Jane, and Carl Rubino (eds.)
Facts About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's
Major Languages: Past and Present. New York: H. W Wilson.